t 
ChAi\ IX.] , SNAKES. 295 
one half have as yet been scientifically identified 1 ; 
but so cautiously do serpents make their appearance, 
that the surprise of persons long resident is invariably 
expressed at the rarity with which they are to be seen ; 
and from my own journeys through the jungle, often of 
from two to five hundred miles, I have frequently re- 
turned without observing a single snake. Mr. Bennett, 
who resided much in the south-east of the island, ascribes 
the rarity of serpents in the jungle to the abundance 
of the wild peafowl, whose partiality to young snakes 
renders them the chief destroyers of these reptiles. It 
is likely, too, that they are killed by the jungle-cocks ; 
for they are frequently eaten by the common barn-door 
fowl in Ceylon. This is rendered the more probable by 
the fact, that in those districts where the extension of 
cultivation, and the visits of sportsmen, have reduced the 
numbers of the jungle-cocks and pea-fowl, snakes have 
perceptibly increased. The deer also are enemies of the 
snakes, and the natives who have had opportunities of 
watching their encounters assert that they have seen 
deer rush upon a serpent and crush it by leaping on it 
with all its four feet. 
As to the venomous powers of snakes, Dk. Davy, whose 
1 This is not likely to be true : as being about four feet in length, 
in a very large collection of snakes of the diameter of the little finger, . 
made in Ceylon by Mr. C. E. and of a uniform dark brown 
Butler, and recently^ examined by colour. It is said to be often seen 
Dr. Giinther, of the British Museum, in company with another snake 
only a single specimen proved to be called in Singhalese Lay Medilla, 
new. a name which implies its deep red 
There is, however, one venomous hue. The latter is believed to be 
snake, of the existence of which venomous. It would be well if 
I am assured by a native corres- some collector in Ceylon would 
pondent in Ceylon, no mention has send home for examination the 
yet been made by European natu- species which respectively bear 
ralists. It is called Mapila by the these names. 
Singhalese.; it is described to me 
u 4 
